


Finding Peace

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Underworld Fics [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 20:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: Robin and Regina encounter Daniel in the Underworld, and he helps her to embrace her role as savior.





	Finding Peace

Robin takes a short breath and looks away from them, his heart clenching as Henry turns his face into his shoulder—and all that he can think of is what he left behind—of who he left behind. They all knew the risks, but there was a clear mission and a noble goal—and if he’s being perfectly honest, there was a debt to pay. But the payment is just too much and he can’t quite remember any of that in this moment.

Emma had had the strongest reaction from the group, and refusing to accept the message as it had been relayed and she’d stormed off, determined to change fate. David and Mary-Margaret had been quick to follow her—leaving Henry and Regina and himself alone and reeling.

He looks away from them, staring off into the distance when he notices the pasture at the edge of the cemetery—oddly picturesque and well-kept. There are stables and horses grazing in the field, and a man standing at the fence. Robin’s eyes narrow and he wonders if the man at the fence is someone they know—someone who can perhaps help, someone who can give them some hope that everything will work itself out, that this wasn’t a mistake, that their situation isn’t as dire as it seems. But he can’t make out the man’s face—all he can see is his form leaning against the wooden beam, watching them intently.

Still, he focuses on him because though he doesn’t look familiar to him, they are clearly familiar to him.

Regina reaches back, her gloved hand brushing against his and he looks away from the man, focusing his attention on her. He curls his fingers around her hand and she looks back at him and shakes her head—her teary eyes offering him an apology that she doesn’t owe. He gives her hand a soft squeeze—and when he does, he sees the man at the fence stand straighter.

Robin blinks, looking past Regina—looking out at the stables and the horses and then back to the man at the fence—and he begins to understand.

“Turn around,” he tells her in a gentle voice that’s barely more than a whisper.

Regina’s brow furrows and Henry lifts his head from Robin’s shoulder, following Robin’s gaze to the fence. “Who is that?” He asks as looks on curiously, his expression matching his mother’s. “He’s…watching us.”

At that, Regina turns and follows their gazes to the man who stands watching at the fence—her breath catches almost instantly and her shoulders fall—and Robin’s suspicion about the man at the fence are all but confirmed. Stepping forward, Robin presses his hand against the small of her back; she doesn’t move, instead she stays rooted in place.

“Go,” he whispers into her ear. She turns to look at him from over her shoulder, her brow still furrowed and her eyes still teary. “You’ve waited a long time for this, love,” he tells her. Still, she stands there and her eyes search his—curiously and conflicted, almost as though she’s waiting for the catch. “Go,” he says again, this time mustering a small and encouraging smile.

She hesitates, looking back and forth—and he watches as fear resonates in her eyes.

“He wants to see you,” Robin tells her. “I know I would.”

“The last time I saw him, I…” She shakes her head a scoffs, and her eyes fall away from his, “I…ripped out his heart.”

“To protect Henry—to protect everyone,” Robin says, recalling the story as it was told to him. He grins as her head tilts and he finds himself chuckling gently—she looks surprised that he remembers the story she shared with him one night as they sat in front of a dwindling fire in her long after everyone else had retired for the night in that year they’d once forgotten, as they commiserated over lost loves. It was one of the rare times she showed her vulnerability, one of the rare times she opened up, and one of the many times he saw through the tough exterior she presented and saw her humanity. “Go,” he urges again.

And this time she does.

He watches as she takes tentative steps away—walking toward the pasture, and though there’s considerable distance between where he stands and where she’s going, he sees Daniel smile.

When Regina is close enough Daniel reaches out to her, pulling her into a hug; and even from this distant place which he stands he can see that the embrace is warm and that it reassures her—and when she pulls back, she too is smiling.

“Is that…?”

Robin turns to Henry, watching as the boy’s eyes trail from him to Regina in the distance. He nods, “It is.”

“She looks…”

“Happy.”

“Yeah,” Henry agrees, looking back at Robin. “Does it bother you?”

Robin’s eyebrows arch in surprise—in any other setting, he might be jealous. But he knows how long Regina’s waited for this opportunity—an opportunity she never imagined she’d have; and he can’t help but be glad for her. Though the pain of losing Daniel is something she’s learned to bear, he knows that his memories haunt her—his death had crushed her soul and set into motion the events that led to her fall into darkness. His all-too-brief resurrection had opened old wounds and he knows better than most what losing him a second time—at her own hands, no matter the reason—had done to her. And he understands because he too has loved and lost and lost again.

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” he says easily, shaking his head as his arm drapes over Henry’s shoulders and they turn away, allowing Regina and Daniel their moment.

It’s not long before he hears footsteps behind him and he turns to see Regina walking toward them with Daniel trailing closely behind her. As she comes closer it’s obvious she’s been crying—but she smiles and for the first time since they’ve arrived in the Underworld, she looks hopeful.

“There are a couple people I’d like you to meet,” she says, looking back over at her shoulder at Daniel.

She introduces him to Henry first, putting a clear emphasis on the boy’s middle name–and it’s obvious that Daniel is touched by the sentiment; and then she turns to Robin, awkwardly shifting as she introduces him to her first love. Robin extends his hand, offering a congenial smile as Daniel shakes his hand, and from the corner of his eye he sees the relief settle in her eyes as she relaxes.

“Daniel was just telling me that there’s more to the Underworld than we were led to believe,” Regina begins as she looks to Robin. Again, his eyebrows arch and his curiosity piques. And again, Regina smiles. “Things may not be as hopeless as we were led to believe.”

“No?” Robin asks, looking between Regina and Daniel. “How so?”

“Cora was right, there are forces at play here that you don’t understand,” Daniel says. “But, of course, she wasn’t completely honest about what those forces were.”

“Why would she lie?” Henry asks as he looks between the adults. “I thought she had her heart back.”

Daniel nods, “She does—it’s just—it’s more complicated than anyone here wants you to know.”

“Apparently my presence here has ruffled some feathers,” Regina says. “And not in the way we assumed it would.”

Again, Robin looks between them. “You see,” Daniel begins. “Regina has the power to undo…everything.”

A grin forms on Henry’s lips. “You have to be the savior,” he says, turning toward Regina. “We thought you’d have to save…”

“Henry, I just said that to protect Emma in Camelot,” Regina cuts in, the skepticism in her voice evident as she looks back at Robin. “It was never true.”

“I think the boy’s onto something,” Robin interjects as he gently touches his fingers to her arm as a subtle show of support.

“I have to agree,” Daniel says, smiling warmly as he looks to Regina. “They don’t want you here, Regina. And it’s because you can save us, you can save us all.”

Robin nods as a faint smile forms on Regina’s lips, and he can’t help but think to how she felt just a few months before—so unsure of herself and feeling so undeserving. She’d doubted that anyone would ever see her as more than the Evil Queen, if they’d ever have faith in her—and he suspects that a part of her was questioning herself, wondering if there would ever be a day when she didn’t have to fight against the darkness and when she’d trust herself again. And though it hadn’t been her choice, he wonders if she was meant to end up here—if their quest to the Underworld was meant to be a part of her story. She had, after all, been fated to cast the Dark Curse—perhaps she was fated to do much more than that—and that maybe here, in this unlikely place, she’ll finally make peace with her past and find the closure she’s always been in search of.


End file.
